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Student’s Account Has Rape in Spotlight

AMHERST, Mass. — This year has brought news of student athletes charged with sex crimes at Boston University and at Temple, along with countless other less publicized cases. There have been claims that Wesleyan University tolerated a fraternity house where the abuse of women was common. A gang rape at the University of Massachusetts was reported just this week.

But none has generated more soul searching, or scrutiny from beyond, than a woman’s wrenching account, published in a campus newspaper last week, of being raped in May 2011 by a fellow student at Amherst College and then being treated callously by college administrators.

“Eventually I reached a dangerously low point, and, in my despondency, began going to the campus’ sexual assault counselor,” the woman wrote in The Amherst Student. “In short I was told: No you can’t change dorms, there are too many students right now. Pressing charges would be useless, he’s about to graduate, there’s not much we can do. Are you SURE it was rape?”

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Amherst CollegeCredit
Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times

Within hours, the story of the woman, Angie Epifano, became the most-examined episode in memory on this campus of 1,800 students, the subject of online commentary from around the world. It prompted other Amherst students, past and present, to step forward publicly and say that they, too, had been sexually assaulted here, treated poorly afterward, and in many cases had left campus rather than be around assailants who were allowed to remain.

Tension around the issue of sexual misconduct had been simmering for a long time here, escalating in the past year as a group of student activists helped persuade a new college president to make it a priority.

“It was being talked about before, but there’s a big difference between people being willing to talk and other people being willing to hear it and join in,” said Emma Saltzberg, a senior and volunteer advocate for people who have been abused. “It’s amazing to see this campus so worked up.”

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Dana Bolger, an Amherst College junior who said she was raped, helped create a Web site credited with raising awareness about sexual violence at the school.Credit
Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times

The college president, Carolyn A. Martin, who arrived in September last year, said that in her previous jobs, as a top administrator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cornell University, she had dealt only in passing with the question of sexual violence. But in her first year here, after hearing from students, she made several changes, like having trained investigators look into those cases, revising the student handbook, and hiring a nationally known consultant, Gina M. Smith, to review and revise Amherst’s approach.

After Ms. Epifano’s story was published, Dr. Martin, who is known as Biddy, released a statement that had neither the defensiveness nor the bland wait-and-see that are common to institutional responses, declaring that things “must change, and change immediately.” She made more administrative changes, and said in an interview in her office on Thursday that she is inclined to make more still, like having experts — rather than shifting panels of professors and students — adjudicate complaints.

She added to Ms. Smith’s portfolio an investigation of Ms. Epifano’s case, including a review of the conduct of Amherst administrators. On Friday, the school’s sexual assault counselor — who was portrayed negatively, though not by name, in Ms. Epifano’s article — resigned.

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A former student’s account of rape, published in the campus newspaper drew international attention.Credit
Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times

Among those who kept the issue alive last year, a soft-spoken but persistent student from St. Louis, Dana Bolger, played a pivotal role. Ms. Bolger, now a second-semester junior, said that after being raped, she left the school for a semester.

Last spring, she and a few other women created It Happens Here, a Web site about sexual violence at Amherst, and this month she drew a wide audience for two items she published on a student-run blog. In the first item, she wrote that last spring a fraternity printed T-shirts showing a woman being roasted like a pig on a spit but that those responsible were not disciplined. The second featured a photo essay of current and former Amherst students who said they had been sexually assaulted there, holding signs with insensitive comments they had heard from students and administrators.

“I’m glad the administration is taking this more seriously, and students are talking about it, but I’m not convinced it will last,” Ms. Bolger said on Thursday.

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Carolyn A. Martin, who became Amherst’s president last year, changed policies on sexual violence. Trained investigators now look into cases.Credit
Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times

The allegations of misconduct and the response to Ms. Epifano’s essay have raised pointed questions on this campus and elsewhere: Are sex crimes more surprising at a school thought of as elite and supportive of women’s rights, or less surprising at the kind of place often labeled as having a culture of entitlement? Or are they just part of the stew of negligent attitudes, criminal conduct and tension between the sexes that can be found almost anywhere?

It was the blog item about the T-shirt that prompted Ms. Epifano to write her story, published on Oct. 17 by The Amherst Student, the campus newspaper, said Brianda Reyes, the editor. She said the previous record for online page views for an article was 17,000; Ms. Epifano’s essay drew more than 100,000 views on the first day, crashing the server. By Friday it had nearly 400,000.

Ms. Epifano withdrew from Amherst this summer, and is now in Europe, friends say. She could not be reached for comment.

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Students who met with Amherst College’s board of trustees about assaults briefed others on Thursday about the exchange.Credit
Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times

Experts on sex crimes, and Dr. Martin, say Amherst does not need to just improve its procedures to encourage victims to report assaults quickly, provide counseling and support, investigate thoroughly and discipline the guilty. At least as important, they say, is preventing attacks through education. They argue that students need to be reminded, repeatedly, of the boundary between right and wrong, of the definitions of rape and consent, and of the duty of bystanders.

Many schools handle things badly after an assault, but even more get it wrong before, said Colby Bruno, managing attorney at the Victim Rights Law Center in Boston, who has worked with Ms. Epifano and other college students. “Changing the culture is much harder than changing the rules,” she said.

As to the idea that there is something uniquely bad here, experts like Ms. Bruno and S. Daniel Carter, who has worked with multiple campus violence prevention groups, say probably not. “The only thing that’s unique about Amherst has been the president’s response,” said Mr. Carter, now with VTV Family Outreach Foundation, formed in response to the Virginia Tech shooting.

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Gina M. Smith, a consultant, was hired to review Amherst’s approach to sexual violence and prevention methods.Credit
Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times

Student opinion here on the matter is divided. On campus, some men, in particular, say they fear that such a suggestion tars all Amherst men — or those in certain groups, like fraternity members or athletes — with the same brush. Others question whether details in Ms. Epifano’s story, especially the harsh comments she attributes to college administrators, are accurate.

Statistics are of no help in telling where Amherst stands, though federal law requires schools to report campus crime data. Studies show that most rape victims never report the assaults, and an increase in reports could mean the school is doing a better job of encouraging women to step forward. Few who do report pursue a complaint, and few complaints result in a finding of guilt.

In the last three years, Amherst reported an annual average of 12 “forcible sex offenses,” a broad category that includes rape, attempted rape, lesser forms of sexual contact, and possibly sexual coercion. A 2000 study by the Department of Justice, based on a survey of college students, found that for a school Amhert’s size, the expected average would be more than 100 such offenses each year, including about 18 rapes.

“People’s bubbles are getting popped by real-world problems being exposed here, even though they were always here,” said Alexa Hettwer, a senior. “I hope people don’t just rebuild the bubbles.”

Correction: October 27, 2012

A previous version of this article mis-stated Dana Bolger’s account of an attack on her at Amherst. She did not say that after she was raped her assailant went unpunished.

A version of this article appears in print on October 27, 2012, on page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: Student’s Account Has Rape in Spotlight. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe